Topic: New videos from Curry2Go in Chorley

[spiceyokooko]

Yes you are correct, at the very beginning I did follow CA's methods and recipes, but further into the thread I do indicate that I changed this by creating a spice mix that I believe compliments my base and whilst I did still follow CA's methods, the flavour of the dishes changed somewhat, as you may expect them to.

Ray

Yes you would expect the flavour to change, but the important point is why and did you think to compensate for the lack of curry powder by upping say the turmeric, coriander, cumin by a similar quantity? You could then determine just how much influence those other 'minor' spices were having on the dish? If any? If necessary you can always put them back by frying say a clove, or popping mustard seeds or cinnamon/cassia bark, cardamon in hot oil at the start of the dish?

Can you see now, that by taking out the variable (the curry powder) you now have total influence and control over all the flavours, so much so you can tweak the dish yourself?

It's a shame you didn't go the whole hog and fly solo, trusting on your own skills and techniques you'd learned as I think you would have learnt a huge amount as to where you were personally in comparison to using existing recipes someone else had developed - even someone was accomplished as Cory Ander!  :

What I find so frustrating is, trying to achieve that final 5% by wading through thread after thread of conflicting opinion takes me further away rather than closer to where I want to be.

[Razor]

Spicey,

What I find so frustrating is, trying to achieve that final 5% by wading through thread after thread of conflicting opinion takes me further away rather than closer to where I want to be.

And therein lies the real problem, everybody's "5%" is somewhat different to each others, hence the conflicting opinions.  None of them are wrong but many of them will conflict with what you and I believe to be true/correct.  I mean, have you personally ever tasted anise in a madras?  I know I've never seen green pepper and onion (Ala chewytikka) in a madras!  It's not wrong, and could well be regional but it does conflict with my "madras goal"

It's a shame you didn't go the whole hog and fly solo,

Not sure at the time that I felt confident enough, actually, scratch that.  I was confident enough in my own ability but I was working on many things at once at that time and I guess I wanted to introduce them gradually.  Using CA's recipes/method was, at the time, the safe option.

If the truth be known, I have since dropped using my own base in preference to using chewytikkas 3 hour base because, it's simply better than mine IMO.  Every dish that I cook with it, never fails to deliver.  Chewy has had much experience in the BIR environment going back over 30 years I believe.  Now this may be a tad lazy on my part but he has demystified 30 years worth of BIR secrets in less than 6 months.  If a member is willing to share with us in 6 months, what it took him 30+ years to acquire, then out of respect, it's only fair that I should give his recipes a go, right?

I'll never stop experimenting though because part of the fun is, putting your own stamp on a dish. Taking a perfectly good dish and making it great, which is what a good deal of us here at cr0, try to do.  Or, even to emulate your favourite restaurant or takeaway, that is the goal of most I should imagine?

Ray

[George]

And therein lies the real problem, everybody's "5%" is somewhat different to each others, hence the conflicting opinions. 

I agree. Furthermore, the figure of 5% is only a figure of speech, of course.

Apart from anti-spam duties I've found that recent time in my kitchen working by myself, has showed greater promise than hour after hour spent trawling through all the suggestions and mass of observations at this forum. It's serious data overload and it's nobody's fault but - face up to it - as a group we've failed big time. Forget the claimed 11,000+ members. Even if there are only 20 or 30 active members here, that's quite a big 'research and development department'. What do we have to show for about 7 years of R&D? No as much as some people might have hoped. Of course, I might be wrong. Some of you may well be making superb curries, rice, bread, etc as good as any BIR I've ever eaten at. You may not even realise how good you are. But when I suggested regional dinner parties to try and establish a benchmark for current standards, there was precious little interest. If one or two people were identified as truly outstanding by way of shared dining sessions, then we may be more inclined to listen to what they have to say. Currently, we don't know who they are. I'm sorry, but saying one's partner and friends say that you (I mean any one of you) make the best food they've ever tasted, isn't an independent enough assessment.

[Razor]

Hi George,

There isn't much in that last post that I could disagree with but just a couple of points.  Your "come dine with me" was a great idea but unfortunately, it was always going to be difficult to get off the ground, for a number of reasons really.  It's a brave man or woman that would feed 5 or 6 strangers, in their own home, with the pressure of making sure that the dishes were upto scratch.  Then there are some that are just uncomfortable with having strangers in their home, nevermind cooking for them.

Then there is the practicality of it.  How do we get to each others houses?  I know you suggested the participants be local to each other but even so, 30 miles or so, is still a long distance to travel for a curry.  In principle George, it was a great idea, and you suggested it for all the right reasons but it was always going to be hard to execute in my opinion.

What do we have to show for about 7 years of R&D? No as much as some people might have hoped.

I guess it's a question of what people are actually looking for George.  Spiceyokooko, obviously loves the "understanding" of the art, and goes into things in fine detail, others are novice cooks (in any cuisine) and are amazed at how good the food is that they are producing.  These are the guy's IMO that frequent the forum but do not contribute, which is fine BTW. 

Then there are those like me, who has been trying to crack curries for years but couldn't get the info that I needed, I find this forum and "eureka" I'm in my element, only to find that it has become a drug and the more you do (in our case the more we cook) it's not enough. 

Of course, there are those that think that they will save themselves a few quid, oh how wrong they are :

So, have we failed or have our own expectation got higher?  I would think the latter.

Ray,

p.s, I have just made a version of c2g garlic chicken.  I used chewys base, my spice blend, jarred ginger and garlic past, rajah tandoori masala. I didn't use his onion sauce, I used a portion of my onion paste instead (Nothing like the c2g garlic chicken really is it? )  I've got to say, it was absolutely marvellous, really tasty.

So, from someone else's recipe, I now have ideas to create my own version of it, surely, that's what it's all about?

[bamble1976]

Hi

thats enough endorsement for me to try the garlic chicken.
Have made the base, madras and vindy and so far nothing groundbreaking for.me!  base may be a tad overspiced imho!

Barry

[Razor]

Hi Barry,

When you say overspiced, do you mean the base or the resultant curries.  Must 1st thought was, hell, there is a lot of spice going into the base but then Julian goes on to explain about adding the extra water, so I gave it no further thought.

The garlic chicken was really good but, in fairness to Julian, I can hardly claim it to be the curry2go garlic chicken, there were too many alternative ingredients used for it to be true to his recipe.  Still, very nice nonetheless.

Ray

[chewytikka]

p.s, I have just made a version of c2g garlic chicken.  I used chewys base, my spice blend, jarred ginger and garlic past, rajah tandoori masala. I didn't use his onion sauce, I used a portion of my onion paste instead (Nothing like the c2g garlic chicken really is it? )  I've got to say, it was absolutely marvellous, really tasty.

So, from someone else's recipe, I now have ideas to create my own version of it, surely, that's what it's all about?

Hi Ray
There you have it in a nutshell, you've obviously watched c2g cook his garlic chicken and it's inspired you to cook a Razor Garlic Chicken with
what you have at hand, and like you say it was a marvellous tasty curry, job well done.

I've just watched this vid and really curious about this finishing garnish of raw garlic or G&G paste.
As a cook, it doesn't sit well with me, as it's only in the sauce for a minute on a low flame. Did you do this in yours?
cheers Chewy

[Razor]

Hi Chewy,

Yes, I did add the raw gg paste and cooked it for no longer than 1 minute more.  It was in the pan however for another couple of minutes whilst I cooked a paratha on my tawa, so I guess the residule heat could have finished off the gg paste?

It was really tasty and had a wonderful sweet note to it, something that you will know that I look for in a good curry.

I've got to admit, most of my best efforts have come about using various pieces of other peoples jigsaw.  To me, that's what cooking is all about, discovering something wonderful from what you have to hand.

Ray

[chewytikka]

Hi Chewy,

Yes, I did add the raw gg paste and cooked it for no longer than 1 minute more.  It was in the pan however for another couple of minutes whilst I cooked a paratha on my tawa, so I guess the residule heat could have finished off the gg paste?

It was really tasty and had a wonderful sweet note to it, something that you will know that I look for in a good curry.

I've got to admit, most of my best efforts have come about using various pieces of other peoples jigsaw.  To me, that's what cooking is all about, discovering something wonderful from what you have to hand.

Ray

Hi Ray
Well, you learn something new everyday, I've never seen anybody do this and I just dismissed the idea.
Mainly because in my mind I could see it white flecking the sauce and giving a random bitter uncooked taste.

A good Bengali expression, there are five fingers on your hand - All different.

There's a Restaurant version around here called Roshun Walla Murgh
which is finished off with a butter ghee tarka of crispy browned garlic and crushed black pepper corns.
It's an awful lot of garlic, but you get the two textures of garlic on the bite. If that makes sense.

cheers Chewy

[mr.mojorisin]

Ray,

I use Chewys 3 hr base and his madras recipe(with a couple of minor tweaks to suit my personal taste). It tastes absolutely nothing like a madras from Glasgow, BUT, IMO it tastes better...because you know you made it from scratch.
herein lies the problem. last week I took a Chewy madras up to my bro in law. he said "no way did you make that you fcuker"...or words to that effect. he was well impressed. in fact, he mentioned a few times that it actually tasted better than the skanky T/A that he uses 2 or 3 times a week...
my next project is gonna be cooking this with Blades chicken tikka..this is gonna blow him away
anyway, the point I'm making is simple...if you can make a Ruby, to suit your needs,with the information on this site, well done you.
also, Kudos to the many people who create and re-create to give people like me the chance to easily make some right tasty curry. BIR or not
anyways...been on a xmas nite out...sorry for the seplling mstikaes
HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMADRAS